A product advancement roll can be used on existing shelves to maintain the placement of products placed one behind the other in front of the placement roll. The roll is unfurled backward from the edge of the shelf and products are placed on the unfurled portion of the roll. The roll curls back upon itself as products are removed from the front of the shelf, advancing the remainig products toward the front of the shelf.
In prior art devices, the advancement device is spring and backing plate device, the movement of which is contained by complex tracks and locking mechanisms that have to be incorporated into the advancement mechanism contained in molded trays or displays which are costly and inefficient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,702 illustrates a device with channels that have vertically coiled springs, incorporated within molded trays, that act in concert to move a product forward. This device is complex and expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,349 shows a product advancement device that uses a coiled spring. The spring has to be supported laterally to hold the spring in position and to keep it from unwinding sideways or vertically. A plate, connected to the spring within molded trays, is used to push the product forward.
Several other patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,634,564, 5,562,217 and 4,899,893 use similar principles in which a plate and spring are used to advance the product. Each of the mechanism are incorporated into a molded tray or display.
Self-Coiling sheets are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,115. Described is the method of making a sheet of a plastic material self-coiling by heating below the melting point. A similar process is utilized in the present invention, described below.